“I reject power and I will continue to reject it, and I will be leaving power in the coming days,” Saleh said in a speech on state television. He will not do so, he vowed, until elections have taken place.

Virtually everyone familiar with the situation in Yemen, however, believes this is merely the latest of Saleh’s many shrewd lies meant to maintain his dictatorial power. Through many months of anti-government protests and international pressure to step down, Saleh has previously promised to step down at least three times, while also calling for elections that never came.

“This is new propaganda from Saleh before Yemen is discussed at the security council,” Mohammed al-Sabri, a spokesman for the opposition’s political coalition, told Reuters. “Four months have passed since he said he accepted the Gulf transition deal, so what is stopping him? He doesn’t even need a few days to do it.”

In fact, Saleh’s aides qualified his statements after the speech, saying he would not step down unless a power transfer agreement is reached. “Saleh will not step down unless the GCC power transfer proposal is signed. He will not leave power if the proposal is not signed,” government spokesman Abdu Ganadi said.

This latest flimsy announcement is probably no different than previous broken promises, although its frankness can be attributed to a political maneuver based on the desire to ease pressure ahead of a briefing to the United Nations Security Council by UN Yemen envoy Jamal Benomar. Getting by the most immediate political obstacles, as Saleh surely understands, could be enough to stay in power.

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Mental darkness is an illusion of good hiding misery, a liar’s pretense of good hiding his intent to be enriched upon our misery. So pity the fool that trusts the word of any man, for darkness exists only in the mind and only in those who have been deceived.

THERE IS GOOD IN WAR
War is the absolute pits of misery, actually the ultimate conclusion of crime, evil and misery. And most profound it is, that only by wars can we have the knowledge needed to turn all things toward the good.

For the root cause of misery is the illusion that quick temporary pleasure is the purpose of life, when for a fact we should be enduring the stress and strain of the work needed to achieve permanent happiness.

For temporary pleasure is so immensely enjoyable, who would be willing to give it up without knowing, for a fact and by experience, that misery be the ultimate conclusion of it all?